Located in the triangle of land in the middle of Burns, Dickens and Indian Trail roads, Hopkins Elementary dwarfs other Lilburn elementary schools with 1,852 students.
The Meadowcreek High School cluster school opened in 1984 and has dealt with crowded hallways ever since. In 1988, it was considered 85 percent overcrowded by the Gwinnett County School System. The opening of new schools and a 2003 expansion of school facilities has helped, but Hopkins is still reliant on around 20 portable classrooms.
Twenty-six languages are spoken at Hopkins, with the most predominant being Spanish. To deal with the complexities of the language barriers, school administrators and teachers have reached out to students and parents with a variety of programs.
Its Sight Words Project, a Web-based Power Point program with audio capabilities, teaches students and their parents building-block English words that are necessary for reading and writing. Teachers of all subjects also focus on literacy and writing in their curricula.
Hopkins has been designated a Title I Distinguished School for six consecutive years and has reached Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards eight years in a row. Criterium-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores have been met state standards.
Hopkins Elementary is named after George Harrison Hopkins, a Norcross-area schoolmaster in the 1800s.
Penny Clavijo is the school's principal.